Mizzou/Kansas State Post-Game Quotes
10/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 21, 2006
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Gary Pinkel | MU Players | Ron Prince | KSU Players
Opening statement:
"It was obviously a very soggy day out there. As always, I'm very proud of my football team and how we competed. I look back at the way we started the game and the turnover that we had and it's instantly seven points. And then the fourth-and-one on the goal line and how our defense answered that, we got a first down on the four or five, and held them for four downs; and then our offense responds with a 99-yard drive. I think [it was] obviously a huge turning point in that football game. There were a lot of turnovers, we got a little sloppy in the fourth quarter, there are certainly a lot of things we need to improve on, but I'm very pleased with the effort of our team. When I took this job there were some inherent barriers. There have been a lot of them. I contributed to this as a head coach here this past five years. This is another barrier we finally got through. I'm glad that's over with. But, I'm proud of my football team, health wise we came out pretty good. Smitty is getting his hip x-rayed; he's got a hip injury. I don't know the extent of it right now. Obviously we're very concerned about that. Other than that, I think we came out pretty healthy."
On the 4th-and-1 stop:
"We talked about crunch time. There's a time when you have to make a play. We haven't done that every time this year, but a lot of times we have in different games. You talk about fourth and one on the goal line, and being able to make that stop, and have offense answer and go 99 yards, it's just a remarkable momentum swing. You do it by your players making plays; nothing magical out there, it's certainly says a lot about my football team, and the character of our team, and the fight of our football team."
On Chase Daniel:
"I think he's a pretty special guy, I think we all know that. When he had that blitz I think there were a couple things there when that happened. One is, we had a mistake on the offensive line. Number two, when he sees that blitz, he can't hold the ball that long. We'll work together on that. I think we got out of sync for a drive or two, but I think he settled down. I don't know what his numbers were, but I know he's a pretty special player and a competitor. And he's got a good supporting cast and a good offensive line."
On snapping the 13-game losing streak to K-State:
"Well, it just hangs on you a little bit. I could sit there and lie to you and say it's no big deal, but that's why we talk about…this is '06, we have no control over the past. We have absolutely nothing we could do, and I felt that the players understood that and focused on it, and we had all that adversity early and they're probably going, 'what the heck's going on around here?' Certainly we responded well, and I'm pleased with that."
On taking advantage of turnovers:
"We had all of those opportunities, and we didn't get one of them. We told our defense at halftime, we'll probably get some opportunities, we just have to take advantage of them when we get them; and we did. It was very similar to the Texas Tech [game], those turnovers, back to back, which I never thought I'd see. But it was very close to being the same. I was disappointed that we didn't respond better defensively. I think they let their air out a little bit, kind of like 'this is going to be easy, the scores up there.' And that's where we've got to get better as a football team, on offense and defense. When you've got a lead like that, you keep that high level of execution. So there's certainly a lot of things to do to get better."
MU Players | Gary Pinkel | Ron Prince | KSU Players
Junior WR Will Franklin
On bouncing back from last week's loss:
"We knew we had to come back and bounce back this week."
On quarterback Chase Daniel:
"Having a guy like that back there makes it easy. He moves the ball all around. There is no one person that he looks at. You just get it and keep moving."
On finally beating K-State:
"That's definitely something that for a lot of us older guys, we've been on the tip of our toes for the last two years. We just wanted to go out here and get that over with, put that behind us."
Senior LB Dedrick Harrington
On breaking the streak against K-State:
"It's very exciting because we saw where we were as a team, no matter where we were as far as the 13 games against K-State. Everybody was focused, everybody played together as a team. Things didn't always go our way. We knew they were going to come to play, things were going to happen, just play together and stay together."
Sophomore TE Chase Coffman
On if the team has thought about Oklahoma:
"Not yet, but we'll be in early tomorrow to get stuff started."
Sophomore WR Tommy Saunders
On the 99-yard touchdown drive:
"Our goal whenever we are in the red zone is just to get one first down to give us some breathing room in case we have to pass. After the first first down, we just got on a roll and everything was clicking."
On four different receivers having TD receptions:
"This offense, it puts anybody in position to make plays. You can go three games with one catch and then one game have ten catches. You don't know with this offense what is going to happen."
Kansas State Head Coach Ron Prince | KSU Players | Gary Pinkel | MU Players
Opening statement:
"I want to give credit to Missouri, a terrific team, offense, defense, in every way. Pinkel did a very good job putting the team together. It's filled with a lot of really skilled athletes. Just look at their players and you can tell they've done a great job training and developing them individually and they do a good job playing."
On the fumble return for a touchdown in the first quarter:
"The game could not have started any better for us. We came in here and tried to put pressure on the quarterback. We were able to do that the first play. We were not only to knock the ball loose but score on it too. This offense is powerful, and we felt that if we didn't pressure the quarterback then it wouldn't be a very successful day. I thought that Missouri did a really good job adjusting there game offensively. The offense coordinator did a great job adjusting and we were unable to make the next adjustments, after we had the early swing of momentum."
On momentum:
"When it comes to momentum, we had the chance to increase our points from seven to fourteen when we had the ball on the one yard line. I told you guys how I feel about that situation. If you're ever going to compete for championships, you have to be able to go on the road and run the football, and convert those situations. As long as I'm the coach of this team, we're going to treat these situations we're going to continue to try and be rugged. I'm not relenting on that. If it was later in the game and two points would win the game for you, we would have kicked a field goal, but I wanted to send the proper message to this team about how we're going to do things. We ran it and we didn't get in, so that was a big moment in the game and it obviously took a lot of air out of our team, on offense and defense.
On Mizzou's 99-yard drive:
"We had them backed up ninety-nine and a half yards and we were supposed to see that as an opportunity and we did not see that as an opportunity. And in fact, we had a critical personal foul that allowed the ball to move out to mid-field, and that aided their drive. No question that was the critical moment of the game, my thought was that to go up 14-3 at that point in the game, would be critical for us, given confidence to this young team on the road. You could see that they could score points and we knew that. So that was a major issue. Had it been any other situation, I think we would have continued to do the same thing. And I was very pleased with how our players gained yards, but that's not the point, the point of this game is to score points. I thought we could get some yards on them offensively, but I think the multiple sacks and turnovers that started the second half, put us I the kind of hole that is very difficult to dig out of. I told the team that this is one of the situations where we refused to do anything but fight, and that's exactly what we tried to do."
KSU Players | Ron Prince | Gary Pinkel | MU Players
Senior LB Brandon Archer
On Chase Daniel:
"He is a good quarterback. He took some good hits. They're a good team. He's a good young quarterback."
"It's disappointing. We didn't adjust. We failed to adjust, not coaching wise, but as players on defense. We didn't execute what we needed to do. We adjusted to all the pressure they gave us early. They adjusted and we didn't adjust back."
On the fourth-and-goal play:
"Yeah it was a big play. That's huge. We just didn't keep the momentum with us. That's the main thing."
Junior RB James Johnson
On the offensive line:
"Our O-line did a good job. Without the o-line we wouldn't have our running game. I think I played good, but the O-line got the job done."
On the 4th and goal play on the 1-yard line in 2nd quarter:
"I knew it was coming to you. I'm still disappointed with that."
On the 13-game streak over MU:
"It's disappointing. We just have to get another streak going."
On team's morale:
"We're not down, we just need to learn how to win. It was pretty big."
On sharing carries Leon Patton in the future:
"It depends on what coaches want to do. I'm just sitting back, playing my role. Whenever he needs me, I just come on in."
On the offensive performance:
"We just drove down the field. We just need to learn how to score."
Freshman RB Leon Patton
On 4th and goal on the 1-yard line in 2nd quarter:
"I don't know what happened. It was a great opportunity and we didn't take advantage of it. We didn't make the adjustments. They got us."
On the offense:
"It was frustrating. We had a couple chances there to get it. We just didn't execute it. It was bad."
On the offensive line:
"They did their job. They did what they were supposed to do and we just followed right behind them."
On Missouri's defense:
"The key was just to get the first level of defenders blocked and then get to the second level. Missouri has a good defense, and they kind of made it tough sometimes."
